Samsung Canada puts Galaxy S II as “coming soon”

Kate O'Brien

June 9, 2011 1:23pm

This is the best news all day! The Android 2.3 powered Galaxy S II has arrived on Samsung Canada’s website, along with the familiar “coming soon” label. No carrier(s) are listed or when this will be available, but Samsung stated in April that it’ll be launch “early Q3″. Good step forward…

I would day one buy….but if its on rogers network, they probably will have locked down all the features, the bootloader, altered the source code to smitherines and then farked it up somehow.

Zex

The sooner the better!!!

frank

Hopefully they ship more than 37 of them to Canada for the launch! Don’t want to wait in some queue for one of these beauties!!

monsterduc1000

My upgrade cometh soon!!!

monsterduc1000

How much is this going to be outright?

Matt

It’s going to be at least $600, the phone goes for like $800 on Ebay and Craigslist right now.

Jerry

That is the best news I have heard all day!

Dhurr

Hope we get an AWS version too

saffant

AWS version is a must. If not this then atleast the HTC sensation?

daveloft

That won’t happen. The only reason Wind and Mobilicity get phones is because of T-Mobile.

Samsung USA announced that the Galaxy S II is coming to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and will not come to T-Mobile.

Next year if AT&T dismantles T-Mobile don’t hold your breath on getting anything good on Wind and Mobilicity.

çstew

Its all HTC sensation for me!

monsterduc1000

Enjoy Antenna Gate 2 then…Courtesy of gsmarena, “HTC does an Apple, denies Sensation death grip issues exist…HTC has obviously taken a leaf of the Apple book of PR and denied today that their Sensation flagship has the so-called “death grip” issues. There was no press-conference this time, but a company spokesman did go on record and denied there was anything wrong with their powerhouse of a smartphone. Here’s the exact quote as sent to Slashgear: “Every phone experiences a slight variation in signal strength when the antenna is covered in its entirety by a palm and/or fingers. However, under normal circumstances this does not affect the performance of the phone.” Now the first part is absolutely true – you can drop a few bars on just about any handset out there if you hold it in a specific way. Yet our dedicated test revealed that the Sensation can lose all of its Wi-Fi signal quite easily in what we wouldn’t call abnormal usage – it’s just how you’d hold it if you are web browsing in landscape mode, for example. Mobile network signal also suffered if you put your hand in the wrong spot, thought it didn’t seem to be as damaging there. Now, we are not saying this is a deal-breaker – the Sensation is still a pretty hot device with all that oomph under the hood, but it’s still a quirk you should keep in mind if you are about to get it. And we really don’t think dismissing the problem as non-existent will do any good to HTC. There are plenty of early adopters out there who will confirm that they were unpleasantly surprised. Update: HTC just responded to a question about our video posted by one of their customers on Facebook, claiming that “The HTC Sensation issue seems exaggerated in this video, which is why it is misleading.”. We find this statement largely inaccurate, since as we mentioned this is the exact way you would hold the handset if you were web browsing in landscape mode, for instance

Simon

@monsterduc1000

This is a common problem with all phones, but HTCs are paticularily sensitive to hand placement. I own an HTC Nexus One (best phone I’ve ever owned), and it drops bars like a hot potato when you cup the bottom. The iPhone issue is more in line with an electrical short, rather than the hand blocking the signal that happens on pretty much every phone to a certain extent.

OMG Ponies!

@monsterduc1000 If you had also done a little research, you would have noticed that the “death grip” on the sensation is not a natural way to hold the device, smothering the entire antenna. It was confirmed that regular usage does not result in this signal loss. Do a little homework man…

monsterduc1000

It shouldn’t natter what kind of grip you have on a phone of this caliber. Little issues like this is what I am looking to avoid in my next handset purchase.

monsterduc1000

@OMG Ponies!: Maybe you should watch the video over at gsmarena and see how many different ways the “un”sensational loses its signal while holding it in ways you would grip it.

It also performs worse in the benchmarks vs. the SGSII and even most of the them vs. the LG Optimus 2X, which is running dual 1ghz and 512 ram against htc’s dual 1.2ghz and 768 ram. And for some reason, HTC decided to limit its internal storage to only 1gb. Won’t take long to fill that up with app/game hungry individuals even with app2sd support.

I was fairly excited about this phone until the reviews started coming out and now I have dropped it from my possible upgrade list which now only consists of the SGSII.

theBman

I just want to know which carriers.

MarlowXim

Samsung has to speed up production. They need to beat the next launch of the iPhone in the fall, if they want to increase there premium smartphone marketshare. Don’t want a HP palm repeat where announced in February and there products launching this July. Its to much lag time for there competitors to launch their products to market.

EmperumanV

Too bad there’s no NFC chip built into the US/UK versions. Only the Korean versions. Should definitely be an interesting buy. I hope the carriers come out with good names unlike the AT&T version called the Attain.

Enjoying my SGS II UK edition however. Best bang for the buck for sure. Wonder how this is any different from the North American version.

bob

Don’t worry. Nexus S owners won’t use their NFC in Canada before they buy their next phone. Or maybe even the one after that.

Nick

Bob: I’ve already used mine. There was a little sticker on a store window that said NFC on it and I went and scanned it. It was an alarm company’s info or something :D. Obviously not meant for me to use but I felt so badass doing it.

Accophox

I must know if there is an AWS version planned. And if I have to have it shipped from the states too.

It’s not really that great as people make it out to be. Just too many fanboys saw quadrant scores on a crappy resolution and blew their loads.

KingK

Kids can’t face the facts. lol

Go to xda forums and see all the problems with it.

Matt

My current contract ends at the end of the year, I’ll have to wait until then :(. No way I’m going to pay $600+ outright for a phone.

Jonathan

Damn you mobilesyrup, I just wet my pants!

Stupid

I would bet large sums of money that it’s going to be Bell.

Bell is on a roll in the hardware department. If they could improve their network and get it up to Rogers and also introduce family share plans then more people would switch.

Adam

I bet you it goes to all of the big-3

Rich

I really want this phone, but I’m hesitant because of the LTE transition slowly coming in later in the year.

Ronald

Rich, you have a point; but if you always wait for the next big thing, you’ll never get a new toy.

Jester

How hard is it to launch a phone all over the world at the same time? Who cares if it is not locked to a certain carrier or branded. People need to learn the true price of a phone.

By the time this comes out, there will be talking about which phones will be Quad-core. So save your money and wait for the phones coming out in December-January.

commaone

so bell is getting it,

theyre not making the AWS version of it and apparently itll be here by end of july 😀

Salem

Where did you get this information of bell getting it and not supporting AWS version?

Adam

Why would it support AWS?

In canada, a quad-GSM/tri-HSPA will cover approximately 12+ million potential customers. Making an AWS version gets you what, 500,000?

Sorry, you wind fanboys might love them, but from a business perspective, they’re catering to the big boys.

Adam

Sory, I understimated Bellus. Going with the big-3 gives them access to 23+ million potential customers.

bob

The SGS2 on sale in Europe and Asia already support the 4 main HSPA bands: 850, 900, 1900, 2100. There is no need to make a special version for Canada this time.

No AWS version has been announced yet. Follow T-Mobile for that.

Khush

The biggest let down for me is if they swap out the exenos chip for tegra 2 if that happens I may end up waiting for nexus 3 or iPhone 5. But sitting here with an expired contract and an htc hero it’s going to be a tough wait

KingK

Why? Exynos is junk anyway. You just don’t know it.

Don’t worry you’ll get your exynos in Canada.

Khush

Exynos is not junk have you seen it’s quadrant scores compared to tegra to. Even some rooted samsung galaxy s can match the performance of tegra 2 phones

JTe

I was at the mall over the weekend and went into both the Rogers and Bell Store (was looking into getting the Nexus S, or waiting for the Samsung GS2) and the guys at Rogers and Bell both told me they are expecting this phone late August. So far everyone is predicting end of July so I’m hoping it’s true and not August as Rogers/Bell mentioned. If Bell AND Rogers mentioned this phone to me, I’m guessing it’s going to come out with Bell, Rogers and Telus too.

Adam

If I’ve learned anything over the years, is that the internet probably is more accurate than anything out of the mouth of Telecom salespeople.

Especially considering the guy you talked to isn’t even a CSR for Rogers or anything, he’s a sales associate for a dealer.

jason

I know for a fact it will be released by Bell. Whether it will be only exclusive to them remains a mystery.

JazzyJazz

here we go again: wait until december when some REALLY good phones come. And when those quad-core phones show up there would be talkings about six cores etc. There is always something better coming down the road in technology.

James_8970

@daveloft, the phone has been announced for all carriers in the USA.

Everyone is getting a little too excited, ‘coming soon’ essentially means the same thing as Q3 as far as I’m concerned. I wish they’d announce a date or at the very least a month as to when this damn phone is going to be released. I’ve been impatiently waiting since early this year for this darn thing and starting to get annoyed when half the third world nations on the globe is getting it before us. I’m hoping they are holding off on us for a reason *cough* NFC *cough*, although if Japan doesn’t get it I doubt anyone will.

OMG Ponies!

I can confirm Telus and Bell will have this handset. I have seen testing devices, used to ensure network compatibility and general function.

David

I cant wait to ditch my BB8900. I have been holding off for months for this baby.

Neil

At least your doing much better than I am..I have a BB8330 that I’m dying to get rid of for this phone…

Ronald

What is Samsung Canada’s record with “coming soon” announcements?

Jerry

Come on Robbers, You say you are FIRST for everything be first for the Samsung Galaxy S2.

kidmecha

Any money they make a version for all big 3 and Rogers is still gonna have it $100 more than Bell.

krstnlndsy

dear god please come to telus

aka

Since Telus has a history of releasing Samsung units (Samsung Galaxy Apollo, Fascinate, Nexus S, Fascinate 4G), I would be surprises if it’s NOT announced for Telus.

They sold over 1 million of them in first 30 days, that’s one Galaxy S II sold every 3 seconds! Samsung wants to sell 10 million of these badboys in 2011. So who’s better to help them reach their goals then make deals with the larger carriers in the country?

So chances are good Telus/Bell/Rogers will all have it. Telus may even offer them on Koodo like the Nexus S.

Adam

I’d agree with this. Going with Bell gives them 7 mil, Telus gives them 7 mil, Rogers gives them 9 mil. In total, that’s approximately 23 million potential customers vs. only 14 if they only go Telus/Bell.

I can’t imagine they leave one of the 3 out, they had the Galaxy S for all the major carriers in Canada & US, they’ll likely do the same with the SGS2

zara

with 8.49mm thickness. dose that mean it will not have NFC?

aka

The Nexus S is also 8.49mm thin and still managed to include NFC.

Samsung announced that NFC Galaxy S II’s will be released “later this year”. The UK’s is confirmed to have NFC enabled version this month.

Since Goog officially announced their NFC services (Google Wallet), there’s a really good chance for this tech to be included. Especially when the Canadian market isn’t even getting them until Q3.

JTe

Where is the comment I wrote and the rest of other comments others wrote? It says 50 comments but only 25 comments are showing up???

Tomudei

No mention of NFC. I was hoping that Korea would not be the only ones.

KingK

No it won’t have NFC. Why would you care anyway, you live in a 3rd world country, where are you going to be using NFC?

Mat L

Yeah I hope we can get this at Rogers ASAP !!! I’m hoping July will be month where I finally get this awesome device. I’ve read lots of posts about NFC possibly being out of the phone and although I am against it due to the fact it was taunted as one of the selling features and really makes the phone future proof, I agree with Bob that says people in Canada won’t be using NFC for quite some times still!!! Most of have had Debit cards with chips for years now and yet not even 50% of places where you can use debit has the chip capability so NFC is far from becoming mainstream.

Max

I was in FutureShop today and the guy there said this will be a Bell exclusive. I said that was the first I heard of it, and he said yeah brand new info this week. Take that for what its worth, I was hoping it would be on Rogers.

FuRrY321

Put this on Koodo and I’ll be happy. If you don’t, I’ll cry. Or… not.

I think the Nexus S is a little outdated by now, but it’s the best phone poor Koodo has…